Powerful structures for product-driven organisations
Another really good post from Hugh at Gapping Void. Ostensibly it is on the subject of Nike moving some campaign activity from Wieden + Kennedy (or at least adding other agencies to the roster). However, the interesting bit is the idea that W+K are being penalised for failing to match the success of Nike + iTunes in… Continue reading Buying space
Tonight was the promisingly named "PPC Earthquake" for Chinwag(#3). Each of these events has had an unusual noun appended to it (I suspect for searchability and Flickr tagging purposes), but this little bit of hyperbole was the most impressive and misleading to date. Unless they meant it would involve mindless destruction of my evening. Putting aside… Continue reading PPC earth tremor – 50 evenings mildly disrupted
It's easy to become so engrossed in the genius of blogs like Antony's, adliterate or Russell Davies' that you start thinking that the mainstream press can't contribute to the debate about the changing consumer (the change in the media power relationship). But there's a great article in this week's Economist about exactly that. And it's a very… Continue reading Attentioneering, attention selling
One of the themes we've been talking to everyone about recently is how the old rules of marketing still apply. I know it's not fashionable to think this way but it's obviously true. If planning became popular in the 70s because it's about identifying a real consumer need and meeting it in communications, don't we need more… Continue reading Lord Bell in new media age
So, what's the report on Chinwag Live's second event Mobile Metamorphisis? Well I'm a little torn. I think without Jonathan MacDonald (one of the speakers), it would have stood the chance of being a little dull. However, with him, it descended into a hideous .com self parody. Jonathan should have turned up for the first Chinwag… Continue reading Oh MY God!
There is a great episode of Yes Prime Minister where Jim Tucker thinks he's solved a difficult international diplomatic problem and Humphrey explains in his normal obsequious tone that Jim's logic amounts to the same as "all cats have four legs, my dog has four legs. Therefore my dog is a cat". (He phrases Jim's… Continue reading Necessary but not sufficient
Well how annoying, Nicola's blog has only been up five seconds and she's already getting more traffic than me! Must be the styling. And it's funnier! I particularly liked the piece on America's dumbest quiz show contestant (image above). Well speaking of daftness, New Media Age reports today that agency DNA is looking to move further… Continue reading Daft
It was a pleasure to attend Chinwag's inaugral live event "Wobble 2.0" at the Slug and Lettuce on Wardour Street on Tuesday (6th Feb). The little speeches by the panel were alright, although not broadly on the topic but more a potted elevator pitch from each one's dot.com. Mike Butcher was suprisingly nervous but great during the… Continue reading Wobble 2.0
I used to work with an account manager years ago who was great (rather unintentionally unfortunately) at Malapropisms. It was she who authored the legendry (in my then company at least) description of the millennium fireworks as a "damp squid" and several hundred others. Our favourite was that a new project represented a "steep learning… Continue reading Steep Learning Curb
Digital Republic reports today that AIS (Archibald Ingall Stretton) has created a 'viral' on YouTube for Lorelei Mathias' novel about speed dating, 'Step on It, Cupid'. They've also created a 'blog' on MySpace. I think this is the worst "dad at the disco" behavior I've seen to date. Interested too in what Dare did for Vodafone:… Continue reading Cupid Stunts
Leading product 